The benefits of policy alignment: interactions of agrosilvopastoralism with food systems in the Sahel and Horn of Africa

There are growing concerns about the role of agrosilvopastoralism for supporting socio-economic and environmental development goals. Recent changes in population density and climate put increasing pressure on agrosilvopastoralism as a multifunctional integrated system built on the complementarity between pastoralism and crop cultivation and forestry practices. Consequently, the contributions of agrosilvopastoralism to food security, sustainable livelihoods and resilience against climate shocks are under pressure. This article seeks to understand how agrosilvopastoralism (ASP) contributes to food system outcomes in the specific contexts of the Sahel and Horn of Africa, and what kind of drivers shape these interactions. We outline a novel framework to understand how five specific ASP drivers, i.e., gender, governance, innovation, market integration, and power/class within pastoralist communities shape different agrosilvpastoral practices that influence food system (FS) performance and have implications for three core FS outcomes: food and nutrition security, income and employment, and natural resource base conservation. We synthesize the results of 40 key studies that report on results of some 60 concrete interventions in ASP systems using region-specific heatmaps. This enables us to identify which ASP drivers generate synergies or trade-offs between FS outcomes. Trade-offs between food security and sustainability are frequent, whereas trade-offs between livelihoods and food security are mainly found from interventions in the power and governance domains in the Horn of Africa and from innovation interventions in the Sahel region. Our analysis reveals that single-driver interventions yield mixed effects and generate major trade-offs across food system outcomes, whereas paired multi-driver interventions have the potential to unlock potential co-benefits. We further demonstrate that deeply entrenched power dynamics and governance gaps may override technical gains. The neglect of respecting pastoral mobility tends to impede lasting impact. We conclude that only context-aware ASP interventions that align (traditional) pastoralist knowledge with institutional reform and address multiple drivers can achieve durable and equitable food system improvements.